


A Messy Relationship

by Quantum_Reality



Category: The 100 (TV)
Genre: F/M, Oral Sex, Vaginal Sex
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-13
Updated: 2017-06-29
Packaged: 2018-11-13 13:44:27
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,044
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11186334
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Quantum_Reality/pseuds/Quantum_Reality
Summary: Bellamy and Echo haven't had the easiest of interactions on the ground. Yet somehow fate keeps throwing them together, and back up on the Ark, their mutual attraction finally makes itself felt.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Kind of PWP-ish but I promise there is actual relationshippy discussion too! However, the explicit rating is there for a reason.
> 
> I've been intrigued by the dynamic between Bellamy and Echo in Seasons 2, 3 and 4. It's never clean-cut; there's always been a messy, fucked-up kind of push and pull between them that's precipitated largely by factors bigger than either of them.
> 
> The thing that just absolutely sealed Becho for me were two events in the final stages of Season 4: Echo, dangerously sick of radiation poisoning, follows after Bellamy in the blindest, most desperate hope that he'll feel compassion for her and take her to a refuge. Also, she pretty badassly helps take down some people threatening Bellamy's and Clarke's group! Then, at Becca's lab, when Echo is contemplating killing herself because all seems lost and losing one person on the rocket ship means more oxygen for the others, Bellamy is the one who stops her and urges her to come with them to space.

After a while on the Ark, Bellamy notices Echo tends to hang around him more than the others.

He doesn’t quite get it; it’s not like they were anything close to friends since the day Mount Weather blew up. But yet she kept seeming to hold some kind of candle for him, the latest example of such being when she dragged herself across twenty feet of floor space, braving her body screaming for lack of plentiful oxygen, so she could drag his helmet off and give him access to the precious oxygenated air slowly streaming over him and his fellow survivors.

But there she is, silently helping him tend the algae pools for when the MREs run out. He’s been teaching her how to read the pH and salinity, regulate the water flow, how to keep an eye on the algae so she knows if the stocks are viable or dying. Monty and Harper got the recyclers working, so pretty soon the seven of them will all be their own self-sustaining community for – well, forever or as long as the machinery holds up.

There were some old clothes left behind on the Ark, and the showers still work, though the water has to be strictly rationed. Bellamy discovers Echo isn’t as much of a stranger to that as he expected. He found that out early on, when he’d hesitantly asked if she had had a problem with the water only lasting a minute.

Echo had replied that in Azgeda, it was often too cold and access to wood and other fuel too unreliable to always get hot water. She’s a professional at getting herself clean in one minute with lukewarm water, pronouncing it at least “better than an ice-cold lake”.

Between the old clothes and the fact that all the women in their sevensome are similar in size and build, they end up sharing among each other. So one shift Echo’s wearing a T-shirt, and the next, a long-sleeved shirt. And as for her pants, one shift she’ll have loose jeans, and another, the form-fitting tight pants she had the day they rocketed up to space.

However Echo dresses, he can’t stop his eyes from roving and his dick from twitching as he watches her bend over to pick up a tool. He can’t quite take his eyes off her strong jawline, her intense expression, her muscular arms, as she works alongside him on maintenance tasks around the Go-Sci ring. As much as he tries to be proper, whatever draws him to her is not going away anytime soon.

They’ve even somehow ended up taking living quarters across from each other, so more often than not, he and Echo are bumping into each other as they go to do their assigned tasks: Raven and Monty have it all worked out, and Bellamy’s been more than happy to be fetcher-and-carrier-and-doer-of-tasks.

He suspects Echo is, too.

Their evolving working partnership is at least a change from not being able to decide whether they were going to kill each other or help each other from one day to the next.

The steadiness of that partnership is more seductive than he realizes.

Or maybe Echo’s still carrying her torch and is now picking up flirting skills from Raven, Emori and Harper.

It can’t be his imagination that her hand lingers on his arm a bit longer than necessary when getting his attention. Or that she holds his gaze with a bit too much intensity in her eyes. Or even that sometimes her bending over seems to be deliberate rather than incidental.

It finally comes to a head three weeks into their allotted five years. Bellamy was working the radio for the “day” shift, since the blood-reddish Praimfaya cloud was finally dissipating and Raven had thought maybe the atmosphere’s ionization was low enough to let a signal come through. All he had heard, no matter how he’d tried adjusting the damn thing, was steady, droning static. He’d even tried sending desperate outward calls to Clarke, to Octavia, to _anyone_ still on that damn planet.

Nothing.

Echo had been puttering around just outside, helping Monty lift up wall panels so he could get at the electrical wiring, so she’d heard his frustrated noises as he worked the radio.

Near the end of his shift, Echo approaches, holding a small enclosed water bottle out to him. She stays silent as he takes it from her hand and squeezes some water into his mouth. He closes his eyes as he leans back in his chair, sets the bottle on the table in front of him, and swallows the cool, refreshing water.

Hands on his shoulders make Bellamy jerk up in surprise and look behind him.

Echo whispers, “Shh. Let me help.” She begins gently massaging his stiff shoulder muscles, her expert, strong fingers working out the tension knots.

Bellamy lets his eyes flutter shut again and leans back. He lets out a low, satisfied groan as Echo’s hands work some kind of magic on him, easing the stress of the last eight hours out of his body. Her shirt barely brushes against the back of his head, and he’s suddenly acutely aware of just how close she is to him. He can almost feel her body heat, even.

And soon enough, it’s not just his neck and shoulders and back that are responding to Echo’s massage work as she now works the tension out of his neck, her fingers probing along his neck and carefully rubbing out the stiffness.

Another kind of stiffness is making itself felt, and Bellamy wishes to hell he’d worn loose jeans that day. He shifts in his chair, trying to make it a little less obvious. Echo’s hands retreat, and he mutters, “Sorry. Just, uh, keep going, please?”

He swears he _feels_ Echo’s slight smile as she returns to helping ease the slight ache remaining at the base of his skull. Soon, she announces, “All finished. _Odon_. Shall we go talk to Raven or Monty?”

Somewhat awkwardly, willing the swelling in his pants to go down, Bellamy manages to stand and nod jerkily at her. He’s not sure if it really happens, but as he faces her, her eyes seem to flicker down _there_ for just a second. Trying to put that out of his mind, he accompanies her and reports the bad news to Raven.

Raven just groans and sighs. “The atmosphere’s probably too ionized still. I’m sorry I made you waste a shift, Bellamy.”

Bellamy shakes his head. “We can’t be the only ones left.” His voice cracks as he repeats, “We _can’t_.”

Raven’s somber look is matched by Echo’s for a moment before Raven’s expression clears, and all-business, she announces, “Then we’ll try again tomorrow. I’m working on improving the sensitivity of the low-oxygen alarms now, so I have to get back to that ASAP.”

Echo and Bellamy take their leave, and walk side by side as they return to their quarters. As Bellamy reaches his door, Echo mutters, “ _Hod op_.” He turns to look at her, and she’s giving him a searching look. Bellamy can’t quite stop the intake of breath as he gazes into Echo’s beautiful, intelligent hazel eyes.

It’s _Echo_. The same woman whose battle-forged partnership with him in Mount Weather led to a later moment of weakness in getting him out of it. The woman who almost pleaded for his understanding when she wanted him to trust her again. The woman who didn’t immediately kick his ass from Polis to Arkadia in one go when he was trying to strangle her for going after Octavia. Hell, the woman who desperately gambled on his goodwill on the eve of the death of the world.

He’s attracted to Echo kom Azgeda, and he has no idea what to do.

Echo doesn’t have that problem. She reaches around him, punches the door code she’s clearly memorized (why she took the trouble to memorize _his_ door code is a conversation for later, he decides), and shoves him past the threshold. Once inside, she shuts the door, locks it, and has his back against the wall as she leans in, ensnaring his mouth in a searing kiss.

He doesn’t push her away.

He, Bellamy Blake, _wants_ this. He lets out a low, wanton moan into Echo’s mouth, and she withdraws from the kiss with a satisfied smirk. “I knew I wasn’t just imagining things.” She looks down and breathes, “Let me help you.”

Before he can quite process, Echo’s down on her knees in one fluid move. Her hands work expertly at his jeans and pull them down, freeing his straining, erect cock. Her mouth is on it a moment later and she _sucks_ , driving all rational thought from Bellamy’s mind as his focus narrows to the amazing hot wetness sliding up and down his shaft.

It’s over almost too soon as his rising urge makes itself felt, and even as he grunts, “Echo—gonna come—” Bellamy’s already spilling his seed into Echo’s waiting mouth. She doesn’t let up on the suction, and he can only gasp and grunt as he rides the climax to its inevitable finish.

As Bellamy’s gasps finally settle into longer, steady breaths, he opens his eyes to see his room again. Echo’s jaw works as she pulls back from his cock, taking the last few drops of his fluids into her before she stands up again, visibly swallowing as she does so.

Bellamy can only stare in wonder and shock as Echo favors him with a minute smile. She adjusts her shirt a bit, and brushes past him to leave his quarters and go back to her own.

He decides he’ll figure out what that was all about later. Right at that moment, he’s bone-tired and between Echo’s massage and… well, _that_ , he definitely is going to fall asleep soon.

* * *

The next shift, Bellamy shuffles awkwardly around Echo, the blood visibly rising to his face as he wonders what to say. _Good morning, Echo, who I got the most amazing blow-job from just the day before_ doesn’t quite sound like a good thing to say. It doesn’t help that she’s wearing the tight pants today.

Echo takes the problem out of his hands by nodding and saying, “I can accompany you at the radio if you wish. I know you’re anxious to find news of your _kru_.”

Bellamy’s not sure if he should be thankful she’s willing to be all-business, or a little insulted she can paper over _last night_ so easily. In distraction, he realizes ‘day’ and ‘night’ never had much meaning in space, but the twenty-four-hour clock still regulates their rhythms.

Bellamy’s mind returns to the upcoming duty shift, and he decides it’s probably better to follow Echo’s lead on the matter. He nods and replies, “I’d appreciate the company, but if you have other jobs to do, don’t let me stop you.” He’s proud his voice didn’t shake. It wouldn’t do to sound like a nervous teenager around her.

As it happens, nobody needs Echo’s strength that day, and Raven concedes, “Things are mostly up and running now, anyway. Monty thinks the electrical circuits are fine now, and I’ve got the low-ox alarms fine-tuned now. I’ll check on the algae pools.”

Bellamy and Echo nod, then head to the radio room. He grabs one of the chairs and pulls it up to the table. He focuses on the radio, not quite sure if or how often he should be looking at Echo, who went to pull up a chair near him. Once again, the low burring sound of static from Earth’s ionized atmosphere tells him communications will be patchy at best. Bellamy carefully begins tuning through the entire frequency range, his ears straining to catch something – anything – rising up above the static.

After a few minutes, Echo’s tentative hand on his knee startles him. She jerks her hand back and eyes him carefully. She looks behind her, but there’s nobody nearby. Go-Sci, for seven people, is actually a pretty huge place. Chances are many to one nobody will come by, Bellamy decides.

In a low voice, Echo says, “Are you angry?”

Bellamy lets out a gust of air through his lips. He sighs and shakes his head. “Honestly, I’m not. I just don’t know what to say.”

“I only wished to help ease your tension yesterday.”

Bellamy lets a snicker burst out as he stares at Echo. “Is that what you call it, in Azgeda?”

Echo’s face falls for a moment, but she recovers and shakes her head. “Bellamy, I’m not ignorant of how men look at me like you did, and they try to hide it, as you also did. And I thought it might be the right time to show you that coming from you, I like the attention.”

Bellamy turns, leans back in his chair, and eyes Echo, perplexed. “So, you’re saying – you like me – as in, you _like_ me?”

Echo frowns. “If that Skaikru phrasing means what I think it does – well, I think it’s obvious. Yes! I do. And I think you ‘like’ me as well.”

Echo is attracted to him. And he is attracted to Echo.

He’s not even sure why he wants to, but he stands up and moves to close the door to the hallway outside the radio room. Echo, her lips parted just a bit, rises out of her chair. As if jerked together by a cord, they step towards each other, their lips parting to ensnare each other in a deep kiss. Echo’s hands can’t get enough of his chest and his ass, and Bellamy’s hands grope for Echo’s well-muscled ass.

They break apart momentarily, faces flushed, breathing heavily. Bellamy grinds out, “I want to taste you. _Now._ ”

He’s already heaving Echo up, almost throwing her atop an empty part of the table. He’s got her pants off in record time, and as he seats himself in a chair, she props herself up on her elbows, her legs apart. Bellamy wastes no time burying his face between her legs, his tongue darting out, lapping at Echo’s beautiful pussy, tasting her, savoring her as his hands grip her hips to keep her from thrashing too much. He doesn’t mind that she grips his hair, urging him on as he eats her out.

Echo’s _loud_. She babbles in English and Trigedasleng as he works her insides with his tongue and his fingers. Her warmth around his fingers is amazing, and his cock jolts at the thought of what it would be like to fuck Echo.

But for right now, he wants to return the favor she did for him. God, but that blow job had been _amazing_. The blonde girl he’d been with that drunken night in the Ark had been all right, but being drunk kind of wrecks having good sex.

So he keeps at it, following Echo’s noises and barked directions as her body tautens, her breaths coming in shorter and shorter gasps until finally, she can take it no more and clamps her legs around his head as she lets out a sharp, wordless, short scream which cuts off abruptly and her entire body jerks several times. As she comes, his tongue works to lap up the juices now flowing from Echo. Her body gives one last jerk, and then Echo stills, her legs ceasing their grip on Bellamy's head.

Slowly, they decouple from each other, Bellamy swiping at his chin and licking his lips as he draws back. Echo groans as she pushes herself up off the table, swaying on her feet a bit as she hikes her pants back up. She favors him with a smirk this time and says, “I take it you’re over your doubts.”

Bellamy nods at her and takes a seat again, half-registering that the radio static didn’t change at all during their rather torrid bout of sex. He adjusts his half-hard cock in his pants, and says, “I’m not sure I get what _this_ ” —he gestures between them—“is, but at least we’re not killing each other.”

Echo pulls her chair over to sit facing him. “I suppose that is true.” She arches an eyebrow. “I hope there is more of _this_ in the future as well.”

Bellamy chuckles. “I wouldn’t say no to doing other things, for sure.”

 _It’s a strange weird messy fucked-up relationship we’ve got,_ Bellamy muses as a comfortable silence falls between them. _But truth be told, if we’re fucking each other, at least we’re not killing each other._

Somehow, just being near Echo makes the monotony of radio monitoring less dreadful. And somewhere along the way, they end up sitting side by side at the table, and Echo’s leaning against Bellamy, clasping his hand in her lap in quiet reassurance that they’ll make contact with someone eventually.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wanted to try and explore Echo's perspective on matters, so here is a companion chapter to the first one. One thing I think that makes Becho work is that they each have a pretty high level of loyalty, and if they give that loyalty to each other, I don't think anything could break them apart.
> 
> (Also, thanks to **Johannas_Motivational_Insults** for catching a few minor errors I made regarding canon events - those have been fixed now. :) )

Not long after they’d been allocated duties and tasks that sometimes changed from day to day, Echo was working next to Raven one shift when Bellamy walked by. Echo’s eyes had lingered for just a moment at Bellamy’s strong back and the way his just slightly-tight pants showed his muscular legs flexing as he walked, then she’d returned to her task of holding whatever device Raven needed held so she could unmount it from inside the wall without destroying it.

Once that was done and they had the device out and safely placed on the floor, Raven chuckled and winked. “I saw that earlier, Echo. Go get ‘im, huh?”

Echo, having crouched to take the device’s weight on her knees as Raven couldn’t kneel properly, looked up sharply at Raven. “You must be mistaken, _Reivon kom_ —”

Raven waved that off. “We’re stuck here for the next five years, and I have eyes, Echo. _And_ I saw where yours went when Bellamy walked by. You might as well go for it, because it’s gonna get _really_ boring on Go-Sci some days.”

Echo had made some sort of indefinite-sounding noise, then said, “We should continue with the tasks you’ve assigned me.”

“Real Ice Princess you are, huh,” muttered Raven.

Harper, Emori, Raven and Echo had been gathered together a couple of “days” later (the actual day and night of course no longer existed; it was unnatural, Echo thought, for the sun to shine in the windows all the time, no matter that they stopped its rays from harming people) for, as Raven put it, “serious girl-issue topics”.

Emori and Echo had explained what they usually did on Earth among the clans to help stop the monthly bleeding (unfortunately, Emori only had a limited supply of the herbs that she had managed to keep on her), and Raven promised to help get the clothes laundry facilities up and running as soon as she could. Harper had admitted she was half-hoping she would get pregnant, but was worried about how to safely have the baby. Emori had smiled and promised she knew how to help out.

Raven had then teasingly said, “And I think we have our newest couple, right, Echo?”

Echo, schooling her looks into impassiveness, had replied, “I have no idea what you mean.”

Raven rolled her eyes. “You and Bellamy. Remember? I saw you checking him out.”

Harper and Emori both simultaneously stifled snickers and tried not to look too amused at Echo’s expense.

Echo sighed and unbent enough to admit, “I do, perhaps, find his appearance – not unwelcome.”

Emori grinned and called in Trigedasleng, “ _Kamp raun em bag, en jok em op._ ”

Echo rolled her eyes and replied, “ _Jok_ of _, Emori_.”

Raven frowned as she parsed the Trigedasleng, and then grinned. “Luna taught me some of that. Did you just tell her to hang around Bellamy’s bed to have sex?”

Emori nodded, a rather too-pleased expression on her face. Raven nearly burst out laughing, but managed to restrain herself to a few sputters. When she recovered, she said to Echo, “Well? Go get that guy. Flirt. Bend over. Seriously, you’ve got a great butt, might as well show it off a bit.”

Harper was blushing a bit, but chimed in and said, “Oh, and don’t forget to let your hand linger on his arm a little longer than you need to. Monty was kind of oblivious at first, though.”

Echo couldn’t quite resist a small smile at the teasing she was getting, but rallied back with, “And Emori, are you and _Mofi_ also going to have a child? I am not entirely deaf to two people trying to hide the noises they make when they are on a bed.”

Emori looked slightly conflicted for a moment, but just snarked back, “And why were _you_ listening in to what John and I were doing on the bed in that lab?”

“Oh my God, Emori,” moaned Raven. “We could all hear you that one night. Like, seriously, the bed in that upstairs lounge? You guys couldn’t have used one of the _private_ rooms which are meant to be, y’know, _private_?”

The conversation had gone on from there, and Echo had found herself enjoying the camaraderie among the four of them.

After that, she had tried ‘flirting’. As a spy, she’d naturally been taught to use her attractiveness to disarm suspicious men, but this flirting was somewhat new to her. It wasn’t just to distract a man for a mission; it was to _attract_ a man, and to do so because she liked him.

Bellamy hadn’t seemed to quite know what to do when she’d started doing that. She could see his eyes travelling up and down her body sometimes, and if truth be told, she would rather be around Bellamy than any of the others, who were already finding their own dynamic between them. John and Emori, of course, had been together since before _Praimfaya_ , as had Monty and Harper. Raven seemed to be interested in hanging around near those two, so that really left Echo with Bellamy anyway.

Not that she had minded.

And then the day she’d finally decided to make her move: Echo putting her mouth on Bellamy’s _mami_ had gotten some very pleasing results. And he actually tasted rather good.

* * *

All this goes through Echo’s mind as she straddles Bellamy, bracing herself on his muscular chest. She rolls her hips slowly, deliberately, rising up just a bit as she tightens her body’s grip on his _hefdong_. Bellamy’s groan punctuates his renewed grip on her hips as she rises almost all the way off of him, then slides slowly, deliberately, back down to the base. Echo can’t quite stop the grunt she lets out as she feels the pleasing _fullness_ inside her, but Bellamy doesn’t seem to mind. In fact, judging from the slight twitch she feels, it only gets him more excited to know the effect his body has on her.

They were having their first _jok_ , a few days after he had rather expertly ‘eaten her out’ (his words) on the radio room table. It was Bellamy who had haltingly asked at the door to her room, and she had smiled and beckoned him across the threshold.

But now, Bellamy’s had enough of the slow pace. He raises his legs, setting his feet on the bed. With the new bracing that gives him, he gets a determined look on his face, grips her hips firmly, and snaps his hips upward, forcing a gasp from Echo as she grips his shoulders.

Bellamy’s soon moving at a regular pace, and it’s all Echo can do not to shout as she babbles, “ _Jok ai – jok, jok, Belomi, snapa…”_

Echo’s not sure how much time passes; she only knows that at some point, her body can’t take it anymore and she squeezes her eyes shut and lets her jaw go slack as the warmth from her core explodes within her, leaving her weak and boneless as she collapses on top of Bellamy. She swears she can still see the faint traces of stars in the background when she wearily opens her eyes and shifts so she can look down at Bellamy.

His eyes are closed, and his hands rest loosely on her thighs. He breathes smoothly and regularly, and as she shifts her hips, she can feel his half-hardness within her still, and the slight dribblings of his fluids as well.

She knows her cycle, so she’s not too worried, though.

Echo reaches out and brushes a stray strand of hair away from Bellamy’s eyes. She regards his fine, almost-chiselled face, then leans down, pressing a kiss to his lips. Bellamy stirs, and his mouth opens to deepen the kiss. After a few moments of this, Echo can feel his desire returning, and Bellamy knows it too. They slowly break apart from their kiss, and Bellamy reaches up to run her hand through Echo’s hair. She briefly closes her eyes, relishing the contact.

“Another round?”

Echo opens her eyes and sees Bellamy’s almost arrogant smirk. She returns it, then to his surprise, manages to flip them over in her bed, so now he’s on top of her. “This time, Bellamy, you can do more of the work,” she banters as she adjusts her legs to clamp them around him.

Bellamy’s only answer is to slowly, teasingly, slide almost all the way out of her, then just as maddeningly slowly, push forward until he’s buried completely within her. And again, Echo can’t help that slight grunted moan he elicits from her, the first of many as he steps up his pace. She encourages him, babbling in _gonasleng_ and _Trigedasleng_ in equal measure as she makes her pleasure known.

After their second time is done, neither can muster the energy to continue. Echo’s happy to hold Bellamy in her arms as she waits for him to recover; his well-muscled body is quite pleasing in its own right.

Eventually Bellamy pushes himself up to look down at her, and presses a brief kiss to her lips. She drinks in his brown eyes and wonders again at how she and Bellamy got here.

Time enough for a discussion when they’re cleaned up, Echo decides.

They manage to both fit inside the shower, taking advantage of the opportunity to thoroughly soap each other up before hurriedly washing each other off as they use up two one-minute intervals.

Once they’ve both got their clothes back on, Echo gestures Bellamy to the small table. The smell of their sex lingers in the air; the ventilation system is already clearing it out, though, and Bellamy seems to not notice.

As they sit down, Echo reaches for Bellamy’s hand, and they link fingers. She says, “I think if _Okteivia kom Wonkru_ hadn’t banished me from the bunker, I would not be here.”

Bellamy nods, then chuckles. “I can’t quite believe I’m saying this, but… I’m kind of thankful she did. It brought you to me, Echo.”

“I am glad, too.” Echo lets a wry smile show as she looks at Bellamy, then grows somber. “I want you to know I _am_ sorry, Bellamy – for making you think your sister had died; for carrying out my orders at Mount Weather.”

Bellamy nods, then mutters, “I’m sorry, too.”

“For what?” wonders Echo.

“For – well, for attacking you all those times, and for – well, they weren’t your people, but I helped—helped kill…” Bellamy’s jaw quivers and he pulls his hand away.

He can’t say it, but she knows. News of the death of a _Trikru_ army travels fast, especially when _Skaikru_ are involved. And the _Trikru_ might have been her enemies in a war to come, but as far as she knew, _Skaikru_ hadn’t been at war with _Trikru_ at the time.

“I know,” replies Echo. “The rumors travelled fast. Nobody was quite sure. People said anything from all of you with _fayogons_ to just one man with some strange new weapon, something that could kill at a long distance. I heard some names, too. Yours and Pike’s among them. Of course, at Polis, after the City of Light fell, I saw your reaction and realized you _were_ there.”

Bellamy nods weakly. “I… I don’t know how I let myself be so convinced. It was like my brain was shut off and Pike’s words helped make things clear.”

Echo knows how that feels. At one time, life was crystal clear: follow her _haiplana_ ’s orders and use all her skills to achieve the desired results by any means necessary. But now she was _Ekko kom noukru_ , or maybe _Ekko kom arkkru_ , and nothing was simple anymore.

“Sometimes you just _want_ things to be that simple. To let someone else do the thinking,” confessed Echo. She stood and moved closer to Bellamy. She reached out and grasped his shoulder. “I’ve learned that’s … not always possible.”

Bellamy turns his head to look up at her. “Can we make this all work, between us?”

Echo wonders at the sudden change of subject, then realizes Bellamy must be wondering if one day she will get tired of him, and things will get not-simple between him and her.

She looks down again at Bellamy and considers. He’s not perfect. He’s flawed: he’s impulsive, hot-headed, and willing to use his hands and his fists over his head sometimes.

But if he grows to care about someone, as with Octavia, he’ll care about them, be loyal to them no matter what, and he’ll protect that person with every fiber of his being.

And that’s what she sees right now in Bellamy’s eyes. And that makes him a man she could be totally loyal to, a man who could become her mate.

It won’t be easy between them. She knows that; she has her own faults, and it’ll be messy and complicated sometimes. But she’ll work at this relationship for her sake, and for Bellamy Blake.

Echo turns to sit in Bellamy’s lap and presses a kiss to his forehead. “Bellamy Blake, I promise you I will do my very best to make sure that it all ‘works’ between us. Will you do the same?”

Bellamy’s arms go around her as he smiles. “I can definitely promise you that, Echo.”

They stay like that for a while, Echo letting Bellamy rest his head against her shoulder. And maybe sometimes, Echo thinks, it won’t be messy at all.

**Author's Note:**

> You can find me at **blogquantumreality** on Tumblr!


End file.
